THE BEHAVIOUR OF THE RED SQUIRREL. II. 



By a. B. Klugh, M.A., Department of Animal Biology, 

 Queen's University, Kingston, Ont. 



The Red Squirrel, of whose behaviour I gave 

 an account in the April number of The Ottawa 

 Naturalist, is still under observation, and I have 

 been able to obtain some additional data concerning 

 it. It is no tamer than it was last year and this fact 

 allows us to regard its activities as typical of the 

 species in the wild state. 



A fact which has come out very clearly in the 

 course of my prolonged observation of this squirrel 

 is that it possesses an individuality of appearance. 

 Its characteristic appearance is something practically 

 impossible to define, but is none the less easily 

 recognizable. It is a matter of "expression", as I 

 find that I can be sure that it is Adjidomo, which is 

 Ojibwa for Red Squirrel and the name by which 

 I refer to this individual, only if I get a look at his 

 face. When I look at the face of either of two 

 other Red Squirrels which live in the vicinity I 

 know at once that they are not Adjidomo. The 

 other two squirrels I cannot tell apart, though it is 

 probable, if not certain, that they too have a char- 

 acteristic appearance which would be revealed by 

 close and frequent observation. 



FOOD. 

 One rather interesting point in connection with 

 the food-habits of the Red Squirrel became apparent 

 during the summer. I had always regarded bark as 

 being a food material which was only made use of 

 by the squirrel as a last resort a "starvation diet" 

 to be used only when other more attractive foods 

 were not available. But during the summer and fall, 

 though the squirrel was well supplied with various 

 articles of diet, such as nuts, bread, meat, etc., he 

 continually made meals of the bark of the hard 

 maple. He chisseled off the gray outer layer and 

 ate the greenish and white inner layers. The maple 

 bore no seeds this year, and what natural food re- 

 source the squirrel could have used this winter is 

 hard to see. The only one I know of is the horse 

 chestnut, and during the fall he stored a good many 

 of these. 



STORAGE. 

 A few more points in connection with the storage 

 of food have been observed. One fact which stands 

 out quite clearly is that when an object is being 

 placed in position for temporary storage it must rest 

 against something, as well as on something. The 

 object is usually placed in a fork of the tree, as 

 mentioned in my previous article, but any angle, such 

 as that formed by the top rail of the verandah and 

 a post, will serve, and even a splinter projecting 



from the surface of a board will satisfy his idea of 

 stability. It appears as if the main idea underlying 

 the operation is to keep the object from rolling. 



The squirrel often has some difficulty in deciding 

 upon a suitable location in which to deposit an ob- 

 ject and frequently carries a piece of food round 

 from place to place, trying several locations before 

 finally depositing it. Further than this, it is not 

 always satisfied with the place it has selected and 

 returns, hauls out the object and deposits it in 

 another place. This may be done almost im- 

 mediately after it has been first placed in position 

 or after the elapse of half an hour or so. If it 

 takes a large piece of food from its location and eats 

 a portion the remainder is almost invariably deposited 

 in a new place. 



During the summer, at a time when I was not 

 supplying any nuts, he went to his main store under 

 the shed, brought out nuts stored in the spring, 

 carried them up the tree and ate them. 



At the end of November, when a little snow had 

 fallen, he buried food in it. The layer of snow was 

 not deep enough to enable him to use his usual 

 method of shoving the object into the snow with his 

 muzzle and scraping snow on it from right and left 

 with his paws, so he turned his paws over so that 

 the palms were upward and shovelled snow on the 

 object in this manner. 



OWNERSHIP OF STORES. 

 Adjidomo has apparently lost the chief menace 

 to the food which he stores in the forks of the tree, 

 as the other squirrel which used to raid these stores 

 has disappeared. I have not seen it since May. But 

 there are still several other "pests" which pilfer his 

 stores and have to be chased away. A pair of 

 White-breasted Nuthatches frequently visit the tree 

 and in trying to eat the pieces of food lodged in the 

 forks usually manage to knock most of them out. A 

 Downy Woodpecker and a Hairy Woodpecker also 

 play the same game. The House Sparrows are also 

 a constant source of annoyance to him, and he 

 chases them with great dash and wonderful agility. 

 Time and time again I have seen him spring almost 

 on top of one of them, and it often looks as if he 

 could have seized the bird if he had so desired. 

 When chasing the sparrows he bounces about among 

 the branches for all the world like a rubber ball, 

 and one day when pursuing one of them on the 

 verandah I saw him make what I regard as the most 

 remarkable spring I have witnessed a leap of five 

 feet with a rise of three feet. It is to be noted that 



